Lual Mayen

Lual Mayen is a south Sudanese video game developer, founder and CEO of Junub games. As a newborn in his parents’ arms, Mayen endured a 225-mile trek from his war-torn home in South Sudan to a refugee camp in Northern Uganda. His two older sisters died from illness while making the journey. Though he was too young to remember them, he still finds ways to honor their memory. He is currently developing a peace-building game called Salaam, which is a high tension runner game that puts a player in the shoes of a refugee forced to flee a war torn region.

The character in Salaam is running from people trying to shoot and capture them and the players needs to keep their characters alive by getting them food, water, and medicine and eventually lead them to safe ground.

What makes "Salaam" (an Arabic word that means peace) more than just a game is Mayen's plan to partner with non-profits so that when players buy food, water and medicine in the game, they are actually buying those items for people in refugee camps.